


you were burned / you were about to burn / you're still on fire

by NattieRK



Category: Life Is Strange (Video Game)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-16
Updated: 2017-09-16
Packaged: 2018-12-30 10:09:27
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Major Character Death, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 1
Words: 835
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12106416
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NattieRK/pseuds/NattieRK
Summary: Chloe bleeds out and Max cries and then it happens all over again.Rinse and repeat.





	you were burned / you were about to burn / you're still on fire

 

You wanted to be cremated so we cremated you and you wanted an adventure  
so I ran          and I knew you wouldn’t catch me.  
You are a fever I am learning to live with, and everything is happening  
at the wrong end of a very long tunnel.

—Richard Siken – _Straw House, Straw Dog_

 

Tell me how all this, and love too, will ruin us.  
These, our bodies, possessed by light.  
                                                       Tell me we’ll never get used to it.

—Richard Siken – _Scheherazade_  

 

This is where the evening splits in half, Henry, love or death. Grab an end, pull hard,  
and make a wish.

—Richard Siken – _Wishbone_

 

      Imagine this:  
You’re pulling the car over. Somebody’s waiting.  
                   You’re going to die  
                                       in your best friend’s arms.  
            And you play along because it’s funny, because it’s written down,  
you’ve memorized it,  
                  it’s all you know.  
                                    I say the phrases that keep it all going,  
                                                                     and everybody plays along.  
      Imagine:  
Someone’s pulling a gun, and you’re jumping into the middle of it.  
                           You didn’t think you’d feel this way.

—Richard Siken – _Planet of Love_

 

 

 

++

 

 

Your breath picks up, stuttering cold with wind and rain, dashed against solid ground, spraying water with your mouth set in a grim line.

The setting is this:

Your best friend stands beside you, holding your hand and watching with you as the hometown you two grew up in is ripped apart by a tornado.

And here’s the twist:

You knew it was coming. You knew, and you did nothing.

And instead, as the selfish teenager you are, your arms hold onto your best friend’s body and never let go. And you let yourself feel comfort in being in her arms. You let yourself be relieved that she’s not dead.

But now all the people in that town are dead, in exchange for your best friend, because of _you_.

You could have saved all those people.

You just had to save her. You just had to play God and decide who lives and who dies.

You murdered an entire town of people, families, kids, just so you could be with _your precious punk Chloe_.

Y _ou think she’s worth all that?_

Chloe is always worth it. Max would do it again in a heartbeat. As Chloe would say, _Fuck the consequences. Fuck time and space and all that bullshit. The only thing that matters is that we’re together._

_So you’d kill everyone just so you could run off in the sunset with your girlfriend._

_Wow, Maxine, that’s beyond fucked up. I never realized how much of a monster you were. Until now._

 

 

++

 

 

“ **Just let me die, Max. Like you always wanted, right?”** Max denies it of course, but under Chloe’s hard glare, she shrinks.

“ **Max, I’m so not worth it.”**

“ **There’s so many people in Arcadia Bay who should live, way more than me.”**

 

 

++

 

 

“ **Chloe… I love you.”**

Max is screaming, bleeding all over, and watching Chloe die over and over is _too much_. Max is dying too and she’s so sorry.

“ **You have to believe me, Chloe.”**

“ **I’ll always believe you, Max.”**

_Don’t leave me Chloe, please. Please-_

 

 

++

 

 

Somewhere, a blue butterfly lands on Chloe’s coffin and Max Caulfield feels like she died along with her best friend.

 

 

++

 

 

And in another universe, Chloe is the one crying over Max’s dead body.

 

 

++

 

 

Max sees all the many ways Chloe’s fate could’ve gone. There are other universes where Chloe lives and never has to worry about dying in a bathroom ever again. Max wishes her timeline was one of them.

 

 

++

 

 

This time, it’s different when Chloe kisses her and is ready for Max to rewind and let her die.

This time, Max jumps off the cliff and soars down.

Max is relieved she did it fast enough to avoid seeing Chloe’s reaction.

Still, the last thing she hears in that alternate reality is:

“ _ **Max!”**_

 

 

++

 

 

Whenever Max remembers that particular timeline, her heart breaks for Chloe. She had abandoned Chloe, once again.

She _never_ wants to hurt Chloe, ever. But’s that what she’s been doing all along, hasn’t she?

 

 

++

 

 

When she hears Nathan shoot Chloe, the gunshot rings in Max’s ears.

Again and again.

Chloe bleeds out and Max cries and then it happens all over again.

Rinse and repeat.

 

 

++

 

 

Max wakes up to Jefferson inside her.

So this is how Max could’ve ended up? In the dark room, with Jefferson having his way with her?

Faintly, Max wonders if he raped Rachel’s corpse too.

Max turns her head to the side. Closes her eyes, repeats Chloe’s voice in her head over and over. She’s trying to pretend Jefferson isn’t moving on top of her, in her.

It takes a while but eventually, Chloe fills Max’s head with her gorgeous voice, something Max could never get tired of. Jefferson is talking and talking but she can’t hear him.

“ **I’ll always love you.”**

_Chloe will always love me. Never forget that, Max._

_Never forget._

 

 

++

 

 

**Chloe’s dying**

**Chloe’s dying**

**Chloe’s dyin**

**Chloe’s dyi**

**Chloe’s dy**

**Chloe’s d**

**Chloe’s**

**Chloe’**

Chloe.

 


End file.
